Challenges in teaching and learning the speaking skill a study in an ethnic boarding high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THU HA CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL MASTER THESIS I

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI THU HA

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC

BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghe An, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI THU HA

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC

BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 8140111

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D

Nghe An, 2018

DECLARATION

I certify that the thesis entitled “Challenges in teaching and learning the

speaking skill: A study in an Ethnic Boarding High school” is the result of my

own study and the substance of this research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution

Vinh, July 10 th 2018

Signature

Nguyen Thi Thu Ha

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing this thesis has been fascinating and extremely rewarding I would like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the final result in many different ways

To commence with, I express my sincere and deepest to my supervisor, Tran

Ba Tien Ph.D who ploughed through several preliminary versions of my text, making critical suggestions and posing challenging questions His expertise, invaluable guidance, constant encouragement, affection attitude, understanding, patience and healthy criticism added considerably to my experience Without his continual inspiration, it would have not been possible to complete this study

I am highly thankful to the students from grade 10 for their help and cooperation during my research at their class I am also grateful to my colleagues from Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School who helped and encouraged me a lot when I was conducting our research

I also own my special thanks to some friends of mine who supported me a lot during my work

Finally, I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude to our beloved family for providing me constant encouragement and supporting me spiritually throughout

Vinh, July 10 th 2018

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the difficulties and challenges facing students and teachers in speaking lessons to 10th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2, the influence of multilingual factors in teaching and learning speaking skills as well as some strategies which were used by students and teachers in teaching and learning English speaking skill

Questionnaires and interview were provided to students and teachers in order

to find the answers An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explore the factorial structure of the questionnaire Based on the results, the difficulty hindering them in learning speaking skills was the lack of target knowledge which caused the code-switching in learning process Some others were discovered such as inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation Additionally, the most challenge facing teachers was the use of students' mother tongue in English speaking classroom Their troubles came from mostly from the difficulty of students when they could not understand language of instruction in classroom The results from study indicated that students and teachers used some useful strategies

to overcome their problems in speaking lessons such as code-switching, using communicative approach However, the effectiveness in speaking lessons still needs more improvement

Key words: multilingual classroom, code-switching, strategies, Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION 0

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Questions of the research 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the study 3

Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 Overview 4

2.2 Communicative competence 4

2.3 Speaking skills 6

2.3.1 Definition of Speaking 6

2.3.2 Characteristics of spoken language 7

2.3.3 Problems with Speaking Activities 8

2.3.4 Multilingual Classroom 9

2.3.5 Mother tongue, the first language and the second language 10

2.3.6 Code-switching 11

2.4 Approaches to teaching the speaking skills 12

2.4.1 The Grammar – translation Method 12

2.4.2 Direct vs indirect approaches 12

2.4.3 The Communicative approach 14

2.5 Interaction in English language classroom 15

2.5.1 Types of interaction patterns 15

2.5.2 Pair work and group work in language learning 17

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Overview 22

3.2 Setting of the study 22

3.3 Participants 25

3.4 Data collection 26

3.4.1 Questionnaire 26

3.4.2 Class observation 27

3.4.3 Interview 27

3.5 Data analysis 27

3.6 Research procedures 28

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

4.2 Findings 29

4.2.1 Results from students’ questionnaire (Appendix 1) 29

4.2.2 Results from teachers' questionnaire (Appendix 3) 35

4.2.3 Results from teachers' interview (Appendix 4) 41

4.2.4 Results from observation results 45

4.3 Discussion 46

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 56

5.1 Conclusion 56

5.2 Teaching implications 57

5.3 Limitation 60

5.4 Suggested further research 60

REFERENCES 61 APPENDICES:

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version)

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version)

Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 4: Interview questions to teachers

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Teachers’ Background Information 26

Table 3.2: Students’ Background Information 26

Table 4.1: Frequency of using communicative activities in speaking lessons 35

Table 4.2: Frequency of using communicative activities in speaking lessons 41

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Communicative language competence based on Beckman & Palmer

1996:68 6

Figure 4.1: Students’ evaluation to their English speaking skills 29

Figure 4.2: Students’ interest in English speaking lesson 30

Figure 4.3: Students’ problems in English speaking activities 31

Figure 4.4: Languages students used in speaking lessons 31

Figure 4.5: Students' classmate in the same ethnic group 32

Figure 4.6: Students' answer about the usefulness of mother tongue in learning 33

Figure 4.7: The cases students used mother tonge in learning 33

Figure 4.8: Students' strategies in improving English speaking skills 34

Figure 4.9: Language allowed using in speaking classroom 34

Figure 4.10: Language of instruction in speaking classroom 35

Figure 4.11: Teachers' evaluation to the importance of speaking skills to their students 36

Figure 4.12: Teachers' assessment to the students' participation in speaking activities 36

Figure 4.13: Teachers' application of method in teaching speaking skills 37

Figure 4.14: Teachers' assessment towards teaching material 37

Figure 4.15: Teachers' organization of interaction of pair and group work 38

Figure 4.16: The basis of organizing interaction of pair and group work 38

Figure 4.17: Teachers' interaction with students in classroom 39

Figure 4.18: Problems occurring while students' cooperation in class 40

Figure 4.19: Teachers' talking time in classroom 40

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

The growing need of the English language makes it even more important to learn According to Paik (2008), English is perceived as an indispensable tool in order to live in the global economy; therefore, the demand for learning English language is speedily increasing Teaching has the major role in the acquisition of English language Patil (2008) supposes that, teaching English is not only transmitting knowledge to the students; instead, it is to enable them to read, to speak and to write with fluency

It is true that Vietnam is a multiethnic country with over fifty distinct groups Each group has its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage Kinh is considered the largest ethnic group in Vietnam However, in Nghe An the situation

is so different from the other areas of Vietnam due to linguistic diversity in the region Among the difficulties facing the ethnic minorities in Nghe An, uneven education quality between urban and rural areas can be seen as a serious matter to educators and teachers in this province In Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School

No 2, the students gather from some ethnic groups residing in mountainous areas such as Thai, H' Mong, Muong, Tho etc They come from different ethnic groups and speak different languages The main hindrance in learning English here is a triangular language environment Minority students mainly use their mother tongues - Thai, Hmong, and others - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, minority students have to learn Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people Also, English is a compulsory subject for them at upper secondary school

In addition, in real life situations, students find it hard to communicate with English speaking people It seems to be difficult for them to have natural conversations It can be seen that minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School are incompetent in English communication, which contributes great influence on the minority students' interest of learning English Furthermore, there

are still no specific educational strategies for teachers and students to overcome the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills

With the above mentioned reasons, a study is carried out for the practicality

in teaching English, entitled “Challenges in teaching and learning the speaking

skill: A study in an ethnic boarding high school” The study is to explore

problems and challenges in speaking lessons It is also intended to investigate, to what extends, multilingual factors have influence on students’ study achievements Finally, it seeks for some strategies teachers and students use in their teaching and learning process

Personally, it is hoped that through the study this would be a source and would be beneficial for teachers in teaching speaking successfully

1.2 Aims of the research

The aims of the study are as follows:

- To identify the problems and challenges in speaking lessons to 10th graders

at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2

- To explore the influence of multilingual factors in teaching and learning speaking skills to 10th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2

- To investigate some strategies which were used by students and teachers in teaching and learning English speaking skills

1.3 Questions of the research

As stated in the introduction, the study was carried out in order to answer the following questions:

1 What are the problems and challenges in speaking lessons to 10 th graders

at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2?

2 How multilingual factors have influence on teaching and learning speaking skills to 10 th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2?

3 How do teachers and learners overcome difficulties and challenges in learning and teaching English speaking skills?

1.4 Scope of the study

The study only covers speaking skills However, focus is mainly put on the problems and challenges in speaking classes to 10th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2

1.5 Organization of the study

The study will consist of the following parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This part consists of the rationale, aims, scope, significance, method, limitation, organization as well as the research questions of the study

Chapter 2: Theoretical Background

This part mentions the theoretical background of the topic with an overview

of teaching and learning speaking skills, definition of multilingual classroom and learning speaking skills in multilingual classroom

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Chapter 3, “Research Methodology”, addresses the subjects, and presents the

methods and procedures used to implement the study The data collected from the survey are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

“Findings and Discussion” shows the reality of teaching speaking Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2, difficulties and challenges the students and teachers encounter in speaking classes, as well as the strategies employed by teachers and students to improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2 The data collected from the survey are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implication

In order to convey an overall conclusion of the study, Conclusion reviews the main findings of the Limitations of the study and the suggested further studies are also included in this section

Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Overview

The issues that are relevant to this study will be mentioned clearly in this chapter This section will account for relevant research in the field of teaching speaking in multilingual classroom In details, it relates to teaching speaking, multilingual classroom, code - switching in multilingual classroom The paper does not claim to make a comprehensive survey of the field, but will take up only things which are applicable in this particular study

2.2 Communicative competence

Communicative competence is defined as the ability to interact effectively with others As its most basic, competence is seen as a combination of language aptitudes an individual has for learning a foreign language Such potential contributes to his/her attaining high levels of performance Communicative competence requires individuals to use language within a rule based system, in the correct context, and with communicative intent Communicative competence includes not only communicative intent, but the overall effectiveness of communicating with another person Light (1997) suggests four areas of communicative competence: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence It is said that, communication fosters relationship with others, embedding social etiquette and expectations in an interaction between two people Communication competence considers the intent of the message, the purpose, and whether the communication partner interpreted the message correctly Communicating effectively requires an effective exchange of ideas and information

With the first mention about this issue, Chomsky proposed and defined the concepts of competence and performance Later, this term is discussed and studied much by many authors Winddowson (1983) defines it in terms of the knowledge of linguistic and sociolinguistic conventions Canale and Swain (1980) understood communicative competence as a synthesis of an underlying system of knowledge

and skill needed for communication In their concept of communicative competence, knowledge refers to the (conscious and unconscious) knowledge of an individual about language and about other language use According to these authors, there are three types of knowledge: knowledge of underlying grammatical principles, knowledge of how to use language in a social context in order to fulfill communicative functions and knowledge of how to combine utterances and communicative functions with respect to discourse principles Unlike Canale and Swain or Widdowson, Savignon (1972, 1983) especially emphasized on the aspect

of ability in her concept of communicative competence She described communicative competence as "the ability to function in a truly communicative setting - that is.n a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence must adapt itself to the total informational input, both linguistic and paralinguistic, of one or more interlocutors" (Savignon, 1972:8) According to her and many other theoreticians the nature of communicative competence is not only static but dynamic, it is more interpersonal than intrapersonal and relative rather than absolute

Actually, one of the issues usually raised in this study is how code-switching can be used as a resource to help learners develop the target language, in this case English Sociolinguistics refers to the understanding and use of language in a meaningful context as communicative competence Therefore, communicative competence refers to the ability to use a language in all round sense and that is to say; accurately (grammatical/ organizational competence), appropriately (sociolinguistic/pragmatic competence) and flexibility (strategic competence) (Levine, 2011:61: Yule, 2012:194) According to Ur (2008:8) "the function of a language is effective communication" and thus it is about using the language intelligibly to interlocutors rather than using it exactly like a native speaker Learners use their competence of mother tongue through code-switching to develop the second language

Figure 2.1 shows how communicative and strategic competence interwine when it comes to the knowledge and skills required

Grammatical competence refers to knowledge of lexical items and of rules

of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics and phonology Sociolinguistic competence has two sub-types The first one is sociocultural competence which refers to knowledge of the relation of language use to its non-linguistic context Whereas discourse competence refers to knowledge of rules governing cohesion and coherence Strategic competence refers to verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or to in sufficient competence

Competence skills Formal skills

Functional competence skills

ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other people as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer Chaney (1998)

defines speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use

of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety context” (p13) According to Florez (1999: 1), speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (cited in Bailey and Savage 1994) It is “often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving” but it is not completely

unpredictable

Meanwhile, Bygate (1987) defines speaking as “oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”

He also comments that speaking is, in many ways, an undervalued skill Perhaps this is because almost all of us can speak so we take the skill too much for granted

However, Bygate (1987) is reasonable when he argues, “speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second

language”

Along with this, Thornbury (2005) reveals that “speaking can be typified as

an activity involving two or more people, in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contribution.” The

communication purpose can be broken when both participant do not have intention

to make their contribution to the conversation

In short, speaking can be seen as the way people interact and share information By mastering speaking skills, students can improve the communicative competence which helps them much in the process of language acquisition

2.3.2 Characteristics of spoken language

Speaking is considered to be similar to oral communication skill Brown (2000) stated that some characteristics of spoken language may make oral performance difficult

 Reduced Forms

The way of contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc., can be seen as problems in teaching spoken English Because of this problem, students sometimes develop an unnatural and bookish quality of speaking

 Performance Variables

This can be an advance of spoken language which allows learners to manifest a wide range of performance such as hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections However, learners should be taught how to pause and hesitate, the way

of using fillers such as uh, well, you know, I mean, like, etc., in English which

makes their conversations smoothly

 Colloquial Language

Words, idioms, and phrases of colloquial language are often used when we use oral communication skill Therefore, students should be equipped the knowledge of this characteristic when they produce the conversations

2.3.3 Problems with Speaking Activities

Ur (1996: 121) suggests some problems teachers and students may have in the process of teaching and learning with speaking activities

Inhibition: Learners are often inhibition about trying to say things in a

foreign language They are often worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

Nothing to say: Learners often complain that they cannot think of anything

to say, or that they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling

Low or uneven participation: In a large group, students may have only very

little talking time which leads to the tendency of some learners dominant, while others speak very little or not at all

Mother-tongue use: In classes students tend to use mother tongue because it

is easier Moreover, they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and because they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue

These problems face the teachers and students in mastering the art of speaking Basing on this view, the research is therefore written in order to investigate the difficulties and challenges in learning and teaching speaking skill at Nghe An Boarding High School Also, it tries to discover some strategies used to improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills

2.3.4 Multilingual Classroom

The world is a storehouse of languages There is linguistic diversity Linguistic diversity reflects the existence of the multitude of languages spoken in the world which is variously estimated In many countries in the world multilingualism is considered as a normal phenomenon for daily living and it is a requirement in this modern world A speaker may use different languages in different situations, for instance he/she has to use one language at home, another at school or sometimes another in trade or work Therefore, in much of the world, multilingual students are the norm rather than the exception There is much research and evidence about the cognitive and practical benefits of knowing more than one language Such knowledge is a tremendous resource for teaching and learning The important thing is teachers should seek out opportunities to celebrate, promote and exploit the linguistic knowledge and skills of all their students

A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of the first languages Multilingual classes are typically found where learners have travelled from other countries to learn a language Students attending multilingual classes come from different cultures, speak a different language and usually have no common language between them However, in the setting of this study, a

multilingual class means the one where learners come from some different regions

in a province They may have something different in cultures, mother tongue but all

of them can speak Vietnamese In a multilingual class there can be much more use

of the target language, because it will be the only common language between the learners, who will use it for their normal interactions both in and out of class Learners' behavior and cultures can be very different, which may create problems, however can be used as a focus of comparison and discussion in this study Finally, the three statements that follow are based on the findings of international educational research on effective classroom practice in multilingual contexts:

- Students learn best in the language they know best

- Teachers teach most effectively in the language they are most familiar with

- The longer teaching and learning take place in the first language, the better the educational outcomes

2.3.5 Mother tongue, the first language and the second language

Mother tongue is a learner's first language, the one acquired as a child It in most cases refers to native language or parent language When we speak about mother tongue, we tend to think of a common language spoken by a cultural group

or our ancestors In this study, mother tongue is basically considered to be the native language This is the language that is spoken at home by the family, by the parents It is also the language that is generally passed down through the generations It is typically the language that is spoken by one's ethnic group Mother tongue plays an important role in sociolinguistics as it is the basis for people sociolinguistic identity Therefore, in this paper, term "mother tongue" refers to an ethnic group rather than to the first language

Mother tongue interference is the term which refers to the influence of the native language of the learner on his/her acquisition of the target language What it means by the target language is the language the learner is aiming to learn When teaching English as the target language, problems of mother tongue interference arise

The first language, on the other hand, may refer to a language spoken in addition to one's native language It is acquired after infancy and it could be the first foreign language one learns Along with mother tongue, the children may start

to learn a different language when they go to school They may become proficient

in this language because it is their primary source of education, than the one they speak at home In the situation of this study, the first language refers to Vietnamese which students learn as official language at school However, when they grow up, they may pick up and learn more languages Perhaps they may become bilingual, trilingual or even multilingual

Finally, the second language can be defined as a non- native language being used or learned when a person has knowledge of one second language besides mother tongue (Hammarberg, 2009:6) Second language acquisition is the process

of acquiring language capacity after another language or languages have already learned natively Learning a second language requires conscious effort and the second languages are not learnt during infancy, and most often after puberty In the case of this study the second language can be seen as a target language, English

2.3.6 Code-switching

Code switching is a widespread phenomenon in multilingual classroom The term code-switching refers to alternations of language within a single conversation involving switches within a single speaker turn or a single sentence According to Levine (2011:50), code-switching is when bilingual or bi-dialectal people systematically alternate or use more than one language or variety in the same utterance or conversational exchange Such a shift may be a sign of a change in the speech situation or a signal of the speaker's attitude to what is said Caldas & Caron-Caldas (2008:476) indicate that code-switching can occur when the speaker

or the subject changes, between or after sentences or even inside sentences

In fact, code-switching has been studied in many researches Adendorff (1993: 19) concludes that teachers should be seen code switching as a sign of bilingual competence, affording speakers communicative power, and thus social power Further research on code switching which underlines the necessity for

teachers to be aware of the phenomenon and its functional aspects is reported by Kieswetter (1995), who explores the patterns of code switching between English, Zulu and Swazi among a group of high school learners in an urban English-medium school In addition, Kieswetter (1995: 6, 59) reminds that code switching is used as

a dynamic conversational strategy which reflects learners‟ dual identities Kieswetter (1995: 96) echoes the sentiments expressed by Adendorff (1993), suggesting that teachers need to recognize the dynamic nature of language and to allow for the influence of context in learners' language use

From the brief overview of the literature on code switching in the educational setting given above, there is a connection in their view that code switching has a role to play in both academic and social interactions between and among school teachers and learners Furthermore, there seems to be a need to help teachers and teachers-in-training with regard to the phenomenon of code switching and the specific functions it fulfills in intercultural communication in the classroom

2.4 Approaches to teaching the speaking skills

2.4.1 The Grammar – translation Method

In the Grammar – translation Method, students are taught to analyze grammar and to translate (usually in writing) from one language to another The main goal of this method has been for students to read the literature of a particular culture This method does not really prepare students to speak English Therefore, it

is not entirely appropriate for students to improve their speaking skills In conclusion, the Grammar – translation Method is not consistent with the goals of increasing English learners’ fluency, oral production or communicative competence

2.4.2 Direct vs indirect approaches

This distinction relies on the dichotomy of learning vs acquiring the language with a number of proponents and opponents of theories of language learning (Lojová, 2005) Writers (Thornbury & Slade, 2006) maintain that a direct approach focuses on the development of isolated speaking skills, micro-skills

(Thornbury and Slade, 2006, p.276) It is concerned with a structural accuracy and emphasizes the use of language forms It also provides space for language analysis, raising learners' awareness about grammar, discourse structures, and routines (Thornbury and Slade, 2006, p.276)

An indirect approach (Thornbury & Slade, 2006), on the other hand, focuses

on the development of fluency of speech It encourages learners to use language by engaging them in communicative activities It is believed that learners will acquire that learners will acquire speaking skills by communicating with each other (Thornbury & Slade, 2006, p.275) and they will be able to transfer those skills to real-life situations (God & Burns, 2012, p 135)

According to Thornbury and Slade (2006, p.276), direct and indirect approaches to learning correspond with a part versus whole dichotomy with the first one concentrating on the components of language and the latter one focusing

on a context of use (ThornBury and Slade 2006, p.279) There are proponents of both approaches (ThornBury and Slade 2006, p.276) According to Goh and Burns (2012, p.135), there are limitations in both approaches The direct approach does not take into account that the accurate use of language form is developed through face-to-face communication The indirect approach, on the other hand, neglects the development of accuracy The latest development in learning and teaching speaking has shaped current thinking emphasizing a combination of features in both approaches Recently, Thornbury (2005, p.11) advocated a general approach to teaching speaking skills He proposed three stages of learning speaking: awareness-raising, during which students familiarize themselves with new knowledge Appropriation, during which students integrate the new knowledge into the existing one and autonomy, allows students to use this newly constructed knowledge in real-life situations without any assistance During the appropriation stage, that he labels practiced control, learners are provided a supportive framework in which they can practice control over their speaking skills (Thornbury, 2005, p.63-88) Activities at this stage are typically used within direct and indirect approaches Thornbury and Slade (2006, p.125) advocate for an indirect approach in teaching

conversation plus that allows a lot of opportunities for exposure to and participation

in authentic conversation and explicit instruction This view of teaching conversation may be applied to teaching in general and it is supported by other authors Although called indirect approach plus, it encompasses activities typical for direct approaches, i.e the ones' focused on language form All in all, good practice in teaching speaking advocates for an approach that combines features of direct and indirect approaches

2.4.3 The Communicative approach

The communicative approach is one of the methods directly connected with the sociocultural development theory It emphasized the function rather than the form of the language The main aim of this approach is to engage learners in active communication and thus allow them to develop communicative competence Diane Larsen-Freeman (2000) states the characteristics of communicative approach as follow

1 The primary goal of language teaching is enabling students to use the language to communicate Communication involves using language functions as well as grammar structures

2 Language is used in a social context and should be appropriate to setting, topic and participants

3 Students should be given an opportunity to negotiate meaning, i.e., to try

to make themselves understood

4 Students should be able to express their opinions and share their ideas and feelings, i.e., learn to communicate by communicating

The communicative approach emphasizes the ability to communicate the message in terms of its meaning instead of concentrating exclusively on grammatical perfection or phonetics Therefore, the mastery of second language is evaluated in terms of how much the learners have developed their communicative abilities and competence In this approach, the focus on using of language is just important as learning the language The communicative approach distinguishes from previous method because of its different characteristics such as:

- Understanding occurs through active student interaction in the foreign language

- Teaching occurs by using authentic English texts

- Students not only learn the second language but they also learn strategies for understanding

- Importance is given to learners' personal experiences and situations, which are considered as an invaluable contribution to the content of the lessons

- Using the new language in unrehearsed contexts creates learning opportunities outside the classroom

Using communicative activities is especially emphasized in communicative approach Communicative activities should be presented in a situation or context and have communicative purpose Typical activities of this approach are games, problem-solving tasks and role play There should be information gap, choice and feedback involved in the activities

Code-switching used in an English multilingual classroom is part of this approach as it functions as a tool for communication between classroom participants Through active teacher-talk and systematic code-switching the teacher can provide clarification, explanations and meaning while learners respond accordingly, interpreting and negotiating meaning of the target language skill which in its turn leads to a communicative classroom (Hedge, 2000:43-74) The classroom becomes learner-centered as learners actively engage in meaningful context and task-based activities as they collaborate (Ur, 2012:8)

2.5 Interaction in English language classroom

2.5.1 Types of interaction patterns

It is believed that ESL/EFL classroom should provide learners with maximum exposure to the target language to enhance their learning and develop their communicative competence Therefore, interaction in the classroom seems to help students in their learning and sets the interpersonal relationship between teacher and students, students and students Littlewood (1981) states the positive

personal relationship between teacher and students as this relationship “…can help

to ‘humanize” the classroom and to create an environment that supports the

individual in his efforts to learn” In the same view, Brown (1994: 227) calls this

“face-to-face communication with people is context-embedded”

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) indicated that the most common type of classroom interaction is known as ‘IRF – Initiation-Response-Feedback’ This type

is described as the teacher initiates an exchange, usually in a form of question, one

of the students answers, the teacher gives the feedback However, Ur (1996: 228) claims that other alternative patterns of interaction may occur between students, or between students and the material He classifies the interaction patterns in classroom as follows:

Group work

Students work in small groups on tasks that entail interaction conveying information, for example or group decision-making The teacher walks around listening, and intervenes little

Closed-ended teacher questioning (“IRF”)

Only one “right” response gets approved, sometimes cynically called “Guess what the teacher wants you to say” game

Student initiates, teacher answers

For example, in guessing game: the students think of questions and the teacher respond; but the teacher decides who asks

Students choose their own learning tasks, and work autonomously

Open-ended teacher questioning

There are a number of possible ‘right’ answers, so that more students answer

each cue

2.5.2 Pair work and group work in language learning

Pair work and group work are the common way in which teachers can give learners the opportunity to practice what they have been exposed to meaningfully They can be seen as the staple of the communicative classroom There are some types of pair work in classroom

1 Open pairs

The term "open pair" refers to a common form of classroom interaction In this pattern two people are speaking and the others are listening There are two ways in which this happens

a Teacher - student pairs

There are many situations in which the teacher talks to an individual students Below examples are some kinds of this pattern which is frequently used:

Informal chat

Teacher: Did you win your football match yesterday, Sean?

Students: Yes, we won 1-0

Talking about and checking understanding of language

Teacher: So what does that tell us about the regular past simple, Sue?

Student: Who can tell me what Sam did next? Yes, Tony

Student: I went out for a meal

Eliciting newly presented language

Teacher: So that's how it works OK, now ask me, Mary?

Student: How long have you been here?

Modeling newly presented language before closed pair work

Teacher: So that's what you have to do Peter, let's try Have you ever been

to Paris?

Student: Yes, I have

Teacher: When did you go?

Student: I went there last year

Talking about and checking understanding of task

Teacher: Who can tell me what you do next?

Student: We work in pair and talk about the man in the picture

Student questions

Teacher: Excuse me, what does 'supine' mean?

Student: Can anyone help him? No? OK, well it means lying down on your back, lying flat, perhaps on the ground

b Student - student pairs

In this case two students talk to each other in front of the rest of the class

Teacher-instigated, for modeling purposes

Teacher: Susan, ask Mary what she did last night

Student 1: What did you do last night?

Student 2: I went to the theater with friends

Spontaneous student exchanges

Student 1: And that's why the streets are so bad in our country

Student 2: I don't agree i thin the problem is not the streets themselves, but the laws which should ban the truck going to the small streets

Student 1: Well, maybe the laws need changing too

Teachers can make an interesting variation when the learners walk randomly round the classroom and find a partner by asking questions of many others until they find the right person

2 Closed pairs

The closed pair is fundamental in current teaching practice We can easily hear the instructions such as "work with a partner" or "In pair, talk about the given topic" Many authors have suggested the advantages of closed pair work in teaching such as Harmer (2001:116-7), Rixon (200: 252-3) This kind of patter helps:

- increase student talking time

- encourage learner independence

- allowing for individual differences in learning style

- encourage co-operation

- allow the teacher time to work with individuals

- decrease stress by allowing students to interact in the most usual format

In fact, pair work is a pattern which is easy for teacher to set up However, teachers need to take into the consideration when using this type Because of the physical difficulties found in many teaching situations, teachers often set up closed pair work in ways which do not encourage the kind of interaction they are seeking The information gap activity (where students have different secret information which they need to exchange to complete a task) requires that students are unable to see each other's information If pairs are left to sit side-by-side in the standard classroom arrangement, then the point of the task will be nullified The important thing is students sit either face to face, or back to back to ensure the task is truly purposeful Successful classroom management is fundamental to a successful communicative classroom Of course, there are many other kinds of closed pair tasks which require the students to work together whilst looking at the same material, so the side-by-side arrangement is the most appropriate

Closed pair work have some disadvantages, especially for teachers who work with large classes, the noise factor, pairs use the mother tongue, air talk about another things, partners do not like each other, students do not enjoy working in

pairs, teacher fail to think about what happens with early and late finishers Some

of these problems can be reduced through learner training and the discussion (normally in the mother tongue) about the reasons behind closed pair work

Group work, in some ways, an extension of pair work and much of what has been said about pair work applies to it

1 Teacher - Group

This kind of interaction happens when the teacher is monitoring groups at work, and wants to talk to a particular group about the way they are working (to help or correct) or to call back answer to the task they have been set The group might also call the teacher over to clarify something they do not understand about the task, or to tell the teacher their results when they have finished

2 Group - Group

This kind of interaction usually occurs as part of the feedback from a group task activity, where the teacher puts two groups together to discuss their results, or where all the groups in the class have an open forum about their answers In both cases teacher will play the role as a facilitator rather than as a participant

a Closed groups

As with closed paired, closed group work is seen as a normal part of communicative practice As well as 'information gap' activities, group work frequently involves more in the way of cooperative discussions and problem-solving, sometimes including role-playing The advantages of group work are the same as pair work However, the strategies are quite different The disadvantages of group work might happen when one group leaves the work for the other groups to finish

It is a good idea when we have a mixture of pair and group formats as many speaking tasks benefit from a mixture of pair and group formats The combination below can be used in classroom

b Groups into pairs

Sometimes, teachers may have students discuss a task and the language necessary for a task in groups before they move on to do the task in pairs For

example, with a role-play involving two people: to exemplify, teenage daughter/father having a row about coming home late The daughters get together

in groups of four to talk about what they might say in this specific situation (the necessary general language having been already presented and practiced in a controlled way), and the 'fathers' do the same The learners are then paired as father and daughter to do the rope play In this way the students feel more confident and already have a repertoire of possible things to say This is particular useful technique in large classes with a wide range of ability

c Pairs into groups

This is very generative way of working, especially in discussions, and its extended form is known as 'pyramiding' The students are arranged in pairs to discuss a problem and its solutions The pairs are then paired into groups of four to come to a group solution The fours are then paired into groups of eight to perform the same task This can end up as two halves of the class discussing their decisions The strength of the activity comes from constantly defending and having to compromise upon one's earlier decisions

However, when organizing the pattern of pair work or group work, teachers need to consider some factors such as classroom management, space available, instructions, timing or movement Also, without pre-planning, the activity may break down

There is evidence that pair work and group work may work effectively when teaching speaking skills Some are necessary for checking work in the accuracy and controlled practice phases Others are important for working on fluency in the freer stages A conscientious teacher will work out ways of using them appropriately and effectively to benefit their learners

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Overview

On the basis of some theoretical background presented in chapter 2, the research was done to investigate the reality of teaching speaking in multilingual classroom to 10th graders This chapter outlines the research methodology exploited

to collect data seeking for the answer It, therefore, includes the description of the research orientation, characteristics of participants, data collection instruments and the procedure of data analysis Basically, The survey was conducted with descriptive statistics as the main research method In addition, questionnaires for students is used as main source for data collecting Last but not least, the interviews and class oberservation were used as supporting methods to supply extra information

3.2 Setting of the study

The study was carried out at Nghe An ethnic boarding high school No 2 located

in Nghe An province Establised in 2012, the school has about 500 students Most of them come from ethnic minorities in the west of province such as Quy chau, Quy Hop, Nghia Dan, Que Phong, Quynh Luu The students start 10th grade after the entrance examination However, the entrance score is low Students come mainly from Thai ethnic group Besides, the other students come from other groups such as H'mong, Tho, Muong Each group has their own mother tongue and different culture The common feature among students is they also learn Vietnamse when starting school English is a compulsory subject at school However, their English level is low and of mixed- ability Students in this school mainly come from poor families living in the west of Nghe An province, so they have little chance expose to the environment of learning and speaking to native speakers from English speaking countries This school has

15 classes (each has 30 to 33 students) ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 At this level, students go through a three-year course In their study, each unit was devided into

5 periods including reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus Most students are, to some extent, good at grammar, but bad at listening and speaking the target language They can do written exercises on English grammar accurately but

they can hardly communicate in English Using English to communicate is a big challenge for most of them who think that learning a foreign language means learning grammatical rules or a list of irregular verbs Actually, class time allocated

to speaking skill in 45 minutes is not always sufficient Obviously, it is a big challenge to teachers and students to cover the aims of the lessons in such a limited class time Thus, this required teachers to be flexible in designing the activities for students to practice

There are 38 teachers in the school who are quite young 19 of them have been doing the MA course The number of teachers of English includes three female and one male is 4 Three of them have qualification as Master of Education The teachers seem to try hard to apply effective method in teaching to improve the quality of English learning at their school

The teaching material is currently used for learners in this study is the English textbook 10 published by Ministry of Education The 16-unit textbook is programmed to be taught in 2 semesters and in 105 periods for each The English textbook for grade 10 is written basing on themes, such as School Talks, People’s background, Special Education, Technology, Excursion, etc Each lesson includes 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Language Focus (with two smaller parts: Pronunciation and Grammar), each of which is introduced within 1 period The content of each part closely relates to the topic of the lesson

In speaking part, students have to work in group, work in pair and work

individually to improve their communicative skill This part has three or four tasks: task 1 and 2 usually provides some language input or specific communicative

structures such as expressing preferences, talking about the use of the computer, etc The other tasks then ask students to make a conversation or a speech from the previous ones and to practice speaking in front of the whole class within some minutes

The specific description of the speaking sections in the new textbook comes as follows:

1 A Day In The

Life Of… 3 tasks

-Asking for and giving information from

a timetable -Talking about daily activities

2 School Talks 4 tasks -Making questions and giving responses

5 Technology

And You 4 tasks

-Asking for and giving information about

the uses of modern inventions -Talking about the uses of modern technology

World -Offering solutions

-Reporting on discussion results

10 Conservation 4 tasks -Talking about the new kinds of zoos

-Reporting on discussion results

11 National Parks 3 tasks

-Making plans -Expressing regrets -Talking about an excursion

14 The World Cup 3 tasks

-Asking and answering about the World Cups

-Talking about the World Cup winners

15 Cities 4 tasks -Comparing two cities

-Stating preferences and giving reasons

English Teaching Experience

Less than 5 years 0 0

More than 10 years

Table 3.1: Teachers’ Background Information

version of Vietnamese questionnaire was delivered to them Another questionnaire was delivered to four teachers to get more cues for the conclusion of the research

3.4.2 Class observation

Class observation was employed to clarified and test the validity of information about the current situation and factors which happened in teaching speaking

3.4.3 Interview

The interview was chosen to employ in this study as the participants include not many teachers (four) Interviews were conducted so as to collect insightful information which was related to the experience and performance of teachers when they have difficulties in teaching speaking

The survey on the purpose of investigating came first for the study The steps of conducting and distributing questionnaire can be illustrated as follows:

 Studied available documents and chose the most appropriate data

 Designed questionnaire

 Piloted questionnaires

 Revised questionnaires in terms of language as well as instructions so as

to make it clear and reader-friendly

 Distributed questionnaires to subjects

 Gathered findings from respondents, analyzed and interpreted the data After that, the class observation was conducted to gain insightful information At the end of the second semester, an achievement test was carried out After the test, the researcher asked another teacher to mark the tests to find out the results and compare them

3.5 Data analysis

Data analysis were based mainly on both quantitative and qualitative approach Questionnaires were delivered to the students to seek for initial data At the same time interviews were conducted among teachers to explore the information of their studying situation The data were analyzed according to statistical frequency and percentage Data from questionnaire were classified into

different categories The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures Then the class observation was carried out to confirm and support the data obtained from the survey questionnaires of the research Data from the class observation and interviews were transcribed in words

3.6 Research procedures

Briefly, the following steps will be used to reach the aims of the research:

1 Delievering survey questionnaires

2 Doing class observation and interviews

3 Collecting data from questionnaires, class observation and interviews

4 Grouping the data

5 Doing statistic calculation

6 Using tables and figures to describe the collected data

7 Giving discussion, comments and evaluations

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this section, the data collected from three parts are presented The first section illustrates the findings from students' questionnaire Then the next part is the result obtained from teachers' interview Finally, class observation is showed

to consolidate the result From these findings, issues about difficulties and challenges facing students are discussed more in detail Moreover, how multilingual factors affect students and teachers are also mentioned Last but not least, their strategies in learning and teaching are revealed Thenceforward, some conclusions can be given in the next chapter

4.2 Findings

4.2.1 Results from students’ questionnaire (Appendix 1)

The questionnaire was delivered to students to seek the answer It started with the question about students' evaluation about their English speaking skills

Figure 4.1: Students’ evaluation to their English speaking skills

From the students’ opinion about their competence in English speaking skill, figure 4.1 shows that many students (63.33%) acessed their ability in this skill at poor or very poor level More than 20% of informants ranked it at fair level Only more than 10% confidently said that they were good or very good at this skill

The next question focuses on students' interest in their speaking lessons at school With four options provided, the study tries to discover if speaking lessons really activated students' interest

Figure 4.2: Students’ interest in English speaking lesson

The result from figure 4.2 showed that more than 64% of students still were not really interested in the speaking lessons Yet more than 35% of them found their excitement in the speaking lessons

In order to discover the difficulties they may face in their learning process Question number 3 was given to get the feedback from them As seen in figure 4.3, many students confirmed their difficulties came from their incompetence of English (75.56%) Moreover, 84.44% admitted that they often use mother tongue during the lessons 38.89% of informants indicated that they had a little talking time in class Surprisingly, not many students were afraid of losing their face in speaking lessons (28.89%) or making mistakes Also, only 15.56% of them believed that they could not think of any think to say during the listening lessons Moreover, we can see that they got support and encourage from their teachers when only 2.22% of informants chose this option in their answer

Figure 4.3: Students’ problems in English speaking activities

Along with students' problems, the study also investigates how multilingual factor affect to students' learning This issue will be started with question No 4 about languages students use in speaking lessons

Figure 4.4: Languages students used in speaking lessons

Figure 4.4 revealed a fact that most of students tried to speak English as much as possible However, many of them (88.89%) use three languages (English, Vietnamese, mother tongue) at the same time 64.44% of learners chose to speak